China

Essays, articles and discussion pieces about various aspects of China. Understanding China’s dynamic innovation scene requires an in-depth look into the many workings of Chinese conduct– from culture, to history, society, economy and more.

Note: This is the first chapter from ‘Innovated in China’ (2017). “Was that building always there?” – Liu Zhilin, Beijing Local I LIKE TO SIT IN CAFES AND WORK. In fact, I’m doing just that right now. I’ve been frequenting this particular place for the past two years—a comfy, trendy space that serves a mean cappuccino. Located in Zhongguancun, Beijing’s very own dubbed “Silicon Valley”, the café menu has remained virtually untouched throughout my many visits here, while the dining experience has become nearly unrecognizable. Gone are the days of waiting for a server to take my order. Now, I browse a magazine-like menu on my phone after using WeChat to scan a QR code on the table. I also no longer need to open or even bring a wallet along to pay for my food. After selecting the items I want, I proceed straight to the payment method selection and…

Interview China Innovation Entrepreneurship I recently had the fortune to sit down with Mr. Dickie Liang-Hong Ke, a highly accomplished business strategist, investor, and educator, to probe his mind on innovation and entrepreneurship in China. Mr. Liang-Hong Ke studied to become a software engineer, but his real passions lied in business. He built his first startups while still in college and later switched into sales, marketing, and telecommunications. Since then, he has led projects for industry leaders such as Ericsson, Microsoft, and Nokia, before becoming a Sloan Fellow at London Business School. During the interview, we discussed misconceptions about Chinese innovation, hot tech topics like blockchain, and market strategy for Chinese and non-Chinese companies. The following is the transcript of our fire-side chat and Mr. Liang-Hong Ke’s fascinating insights. CH: You dabble in a lot of areas. From your LinkedIn page, it appears you’ve been a manager, entrepreneur, writer, and…

China Fine-Dining Market: Note from Myung Jee Jang, Mio Sato & Maya Cypris– In 2016, we received a year-long research grant to investigate where China’s fine-dining stands in the world market. While the topic may sound somewhat novel, we truly believe that this research has great value in divulging information about Chinese culture, perception of innovation, and global expansion plans. The following, though only part of our final report, highlights our research process and covers some of our many findings. China has been living out a Cinderella story of sorts, with an ever-growing collection of rags to riches stories. With a new consumption culture in place and money to spend, many urban Chinese civilians have experienced notable improvement in their quality of life. While the country’s rapid success and development has yielded a plethora of high-scale amenities, goods, and service— including elaborate new shopping malls, spas, luxury hotels, theaters, international university…

China Population Aging: As China nears 1.4 billion inhabitants and becomes one of the most powerful economies in the world, the country has had to prepare and adjust to vast changes accordingly. The highly dynamic setting has brought on many unprecedented scenarios, yielding a plethora of new opportunities as well as looming hurdles. Of these ongoing developments, one of the most crucial unfolding issues is the matter of China’s ageing population, and how to handle it. The given of China’s ageing population is no surprising prospect, and has long troubled members of Chinese society ranging from scholars to government officials, economists and age groups of the young and old. A consequence of China’s one child policy, which significantly disproportioned the size of generations, paired with China’s still steadily growing population, China is today heading towards a future where the older generation will significantly outnumber the younger one. To many, having…

Chinese Digital Healthcare: The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After exploring how patients’ experience was improved through digitalisation, and how BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi) were entering the market, after analysing Chinese doctors’ main problems and investigating the reasons why China’s eHealth startup WeDoctor had turned into a unicorn, I conclude this 5 articles series with a global overview of the reasons why the Chinese healthcare ecosystem indeed needs to evolve, how digital can help in the process and the…

China Israel Relations Evolution: For portions of their roughly sixty-year history, Sino-Israeli relations were characterized by asymmetry rather than reciprocity, and extended periods of virtually no relationship at all. Israel recognized the People’s Republic of China soon after its establishment, becoming the first country in the Middle East to do so. However, it was not until nearly forty years later, in 1992, that formal diplomatic relations were officially established between the two countries. This gap is telling of the complexity of Sino-Israeli relations and the evolution of China’s strategy in regards to the Middle East. But despite a rocky start and official recognition period that only spans a short 25 years, the bond formed between China and Israel has already evolved into a strong multifaceted relationship consisting of cultural, political, military and economic ties. From a historical perspective, the relationship between China and Israel can be divided into four distinguishable…

WeDoctor/Weiyi Group Chinese eHealth: The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After examining the eHealth strategy of the “BATX”, Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi, the Chinese equivalent of the American GAFA (Google, Amazon, Facebook, Apple), I wanted to analyse the investment distribution pattern among all eHealth start-ups. The last two years have been rich in investments, with a total of ~ USD 2 billion poured into eHealth solutions in China. Many investments are highly interesting to analyse but one start-up attracts way…

Effect of Technology on Traditional Chinese Culture: In an age where children as young as grade school carry mobile phones and shopping can be done from bed, it is undeniable that technology has transformed modern living. Ranging from having unprecedented access to all scopes of information at the tips of our fingers, to altering the essence of interpersonal relationships, modern technology has created a new era, dubbed by many as the “digital age”. Of these technological advancements, social media is among the most noteworthy. As in the West, the introduction of social media in China has had substantial impact on many aspects of Chinese life. China is a country whose rich culture and history has long been a source of its pride and joy. But as it has adapted to the changing technological times, so to have certain core cultural elements evolved accordingly. Ranging from Chinese philosophies, to mentality and national…

WeChat Mini Apps: Tencent’s WeChat is a few moments away from rolling out what could be the end of App Stores. Ironically, this big threat to the smart-phone application industry carries a deceptively innocent name— Mini Apps. WeChat’s revolutionary new feature essentially sounds like ‘application inception’— “an app within the WeChat app”, according to Zhang Xiaolong, Tencent’s Senior Vice President. While the necessity of such a feature may not be immediately apparent to the average smart-phone user, there is far more to be gained from Mini Apps than initially meets the eye. For one, Mini Apps provide the essential quality of convenience—turning WeChat into a truly all-encompassing platform that successfully addresses people’s natural affinity for simple, all-in-one products. This arguably, is essentially the very essence of Chinese innovation. “These are apps that you don’t need to install; you can open them simply by searching or scanning a QR code”, says Zhang Xiaolong.…

Chinese Healthcare & BATX (Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent, Xiaomi): The Chinese healthcare system is facing huge challenges with, on one hand, a greying population, multiplying chronic diseases and poor health literacy and, on the other hand, too few qualified doctors working in overcrowded top tier hospitals while lower tier ones are deserted. eHealth solutions are today multiplying to address the very obvious needs for higher quality of care and the associated market was recently estimated to reach USD 110 million in 2020 by BCG. After examining how Chinese companies were improving patients’ experience, I further explore the strategies deployed by the “BATX”, the Chinese equivalent of the American GAFA (Google, Apple, Facebook, Amazon): Baidu, Alibaba, Tencent and Xiaomi. They all pursue an active strategy to promote and develop tomorrow’s healthcare system in China, though with very different visions and means. Here is a short analysis: Baidu’s main strategy has been to…